SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 5, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 4, 2020.

The sky was generally clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.

Solar activity was at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2785 has recently departed from Earth-view, already behind the southwestern limb. In addition, the departing AR2786 (Hsx/alpha) and AR2790 (Cko/beta) are exhibiting slight decay on its intermediate spots and shrinkage on its respective leader spots. A minor C1.6 solar flare from AR2790 was recorded by the NOAA-SWPC and SIDC over the past 24 hours.  Meanwhile, few more spots have developed from a new active region near the southeastern limb (encircled), yet to be numbered.
The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 42.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were several moderately huge prominences at the limbs, some weak magnetic enhancements in AR2786, AR2790, and few stable elongated filaments across the solar surface, mostly at the southern hemisphere, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares from B-class up to C-class intensity, mainly from AR2790. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development.

Equipment used are Skywatcher 120mm refractor telescope with Baader filter and unmodified Canon EOS 1D Mark IV DSLR camera for visible imagery. For H-alpha imagery, the equipment used are Lunt 60mm H-alpha solar telescope, and QHYCCD 290III mono camera; all mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 pro mount Pre-processing of visible solar images was performed in PIPP, stacking in Autostakkert, slight wavelet adjustments in Registax 6, and post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CC.

*TECHNICAL REPORTS COURTESY OF SOLAR INFLUENCE DATA CENTER (SIDC), NOAA-SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER (NOAA-SWPC)

Weather Data (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, December 4, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 29.73°C

Average Humidity: 35.67%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 21.6 kph from N

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1002.2 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 107.0 W/m^2

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